We are fine and doing well. We did see the wave come in and the damage that it did. We are about 150 meters from the beach, but we are on the 14th floor. Hong had just gone outside on the balcony facing the beach and saw the wave coming in, but she didn’t know what it was. She had never seen anything like it (nor had most folks), but after the first one hit, she told me to come outside and look, as all the beach chairs and beach umbrellas were floating out to sea. I went out and looked and told her that this must have been caused by an earthquake somewhere, as the beach chairs and umbrellas, were well off the tide levels for this time of year and were 2-3 thick. It was incredible.
The next one came about 10 minutes later, but it was much more powerful. It pushed water well past the beach sand level, and the first to go were massage tents and small beach restaurant tents and motorcycle vendors. These were 10-15 meters past the sand area from the beach. The water came on up over the beach road, which is about 40-50 meters from the beach. It pushed on from there into shops and storefronts across the beach road. It then moved on down the road at from the circle here at Karon Beach, which was over 200 meters from the beach. Motorcycles, large ice chests, store refrigerators, etc. went floating down the street. In front of our apartment complex (entrance road makes a semicircle and there are stores and restaurants in front, were smashed with water, which stopped the flow from reaching our apartment complex. Bar stools, chairs, tables, etc. were pushed up our entrance road to the gate of the complex, before stopping. People were running down the road, screaming and hollering.
The ocean movement was just incredible. We watched it for over an hour and the ocean looked like the water in a bath tub after a big fat boy like myself, just got out of the bath tub quickly. The water would surge, flow left and right (parallel) to the beach and also would be sucked out to the sea. The ocean would recede from the beach by about 100 meters, and then would flow back to the beach, still overflowing the beach area, and onto the road, but not like it did the first time. It was really an incredible site.
We are at a beach (Karon Beach) south of the main tourist beach called Patong, but Patong is built up right across the beach road, which is literally just 10 meters from the beach. It was really devastated. I am attaching a picture of the main bar road called Bangla Road. It runs perpendicular to the beach and is about 250 meters long, before another road runs parallel to the beach road. The picture that you are looking at, is almost at the end of the road (the point the furthest from the beach). It is unbelievable. They said that a 6-8 foot wave just rolled down that road and went into shops that are on the road, which I described as parallel to the beach road.
Up on the northern part of the island is a place called Laguna. It is an area, which has 4 to 6, 5 star hotels and is an upmarket place for tourists – meaning once they go to that area, they usually don’t go to other parts of Phuket, unless the just want to – sort of like being in a Disney Land area. They are closer to the beach up there and they had waves go into the hotels (5 star hotels) up to the 3rd floor. People drowned in their hotel rooms. There is a holiday inn along the beach road in Patong and some folks said that they have 5 cars in their swimming pool, which is right along the beach road.
After the first two waves came in, we were told to come move our car to higher ground as they expected another wave to be even larger than the first two. So, we decided to leave and go to the center of the island, to the golf course. We stayed there until around 17:30 in the evening and the road to the south to the Karon and Kata beach areas, was reopened, but the road going to Patong Beach, was still closed as of that time, they were diverting traffic away from the Patong Hill road, into Patong beach. In some places in Phuket, it is like nothing happened, and from the beach to about 200 meters inland, it is like a war zone. We went to Patong today and the destruction was much more than I even expected. All the stores, restaurants, hotels are either gutted or collapsed. It is amazing and we were lucky.
Hours after the quake, and he was not aware of the quake.... these people had NO warning.
Most of the places in Phuket Patong area will be back in a few months. I may go back in April or so, depends on whether I get the job I'm up for.